Lawmakers and parents are calling for action in light of an NJ Advance Media investigation into a private school bus company with a dangerous safety record that is transporting thousands of kids in New Jersey every day.

Asm. David Wolfe, R-10th Dist., said he plans to request the Joint Committee for Public Schools look into private school bus company safety in response to the investigation into Jay’s Bus Service, which has the highest crash total of any private bus company in New Jersey.

Jay’s buses have been in 78 crashes over less than four years, and are pulled out of service for safety issues at a far higher rate than the rest of the state, the investigation found. Its drivers have also been cited for numerous traffic violations, and one was caught driving drunk with a bus full of children.

Jay’s transports tens of thousands of children every day in about 20 districts in Monmouth and Ocean counties, according to the Department of Education.

The owner of Jay’s did not respond to the investigation, but other lawmakers have taken notice, too.

State Sen. Robert Singer, R-30th Dist., said a recent bill that ordered a statewide study on school bus safety would address some of the issues raised in the report.

“There’s a lack of bus drivers statewide, and we’ll look to see how to increase that,” he said. A spokesman for the Department of Education said the state was in the process of choosing what organization would run the study.

Singer would not say whether he thought Jay’s had broader issues. But he said the investigation “brought attention” to school bus safety, and said the public is entitled to a response from Jay’s, and the districts that contract with it.

“Show us what’s being done to correct it or prevent it. Is training being done? If accidents happen, are they reviewing them?” he said.

A spokesperson for Gov. Phil Murphy’s office sent an emailed statement saying that the governor has already promised to improve bus safety following a 2018 school bus crash in North Jersey that killed two people. But, Murphy is open to working with the Legislature to “further improve safety standards and protect New Jersey’s children,” the statement said.

One school district that contracts with Jay’s said it was happy with the company’s performance.

Superintendent William George of Middletown said in an email the district has benefitted from a newer fleet of buses from Jay’s along with “additional safety measures.”

“Since this contractor has been in Middletown, the company has gone above and beyond to ensure our satisfaction with their performance. We have received very few complaints with respect to the company,” George said.

But a Middletown parent who reached out to George separately said she was disappointed.

“It’s a lame attempt at deflection, claiming they aren’t as bad as the report indicates," Carrie Barreiro said in a Facebook comment about George’s comments. "However, that report is full of factual and verifiable information regarding Jay’s Bus Company. They ARE that bad. Period.”

Other districts that contracted with Jay’s did not respond to requests for comment.

And, Jay’s is still growing.

Lakewood just expanded it’s contract with Jay’s to $2.4 million. And, the company’s largest contract -- worth $15 million -- is with the Lakewood Student Transportation Authority (LSTA), a private busing system that drives Orthodox Jewish students in the district to private yeshivas.

The governor’s newest budget added a provision to renew the LSTA, which was set to expire soon. In fact, Asm. Wolfe sponsored a bill to expand the private busing consortium to Jackson and Toms River. It’s unclear how the organization would run or whether it would use the same bus companies as the LSTA.

Wolfe said he hoped those overseeing the LSTA would look into safety in light of the story’s findings.

It’s not clear if they will. When asked for a response to the reports findings on Jay’s in light of its growing role in Lakewood, the district’s interim school business administrator, Robert Finger, said he had “no comment.”

Al Longo, a member of the LSTA oversight committee, said there was a “strange irony” about Jay’s.

“The reason that the private schools went through great lengths for courtesy busing was safety,” he said. “They made the case that Lakewood traffic was unsafe, and now they’re putting kids on unsafe buses.”

Longo, appointed by the governor to help hold the LSTA accountable, said he was given no marching orders and no support on getting the LSTA to cooperate. He thinks the governor has had a lackluster response on Lakewood’s busing problems, the result of the “political might of Lakewood" — a large voting block with a powerful appeal to politicians.

He said he couldn’t believe no one in Lakewood knew about Jay’s record beforehand.